SwingingTheLamp
@SwingingTheLamp@midwest.social
- Comment on Wealth inequality seems like the only outcome in a system where capital gains are taxed less than labor 6 days ago:
Wealth inequality is in the inevitable outcome of a market system. It’s mathematically baked in. A tax system like this just makes it faster.
- Comment on The AI bubble is so big it's propping up the US economy (for now) 3 weeks ago:
I get the thinking here, but past bubbles (dot com, housing) were also based on things that have real value, and the bubble still popped. A bubble, definitionally, is when something is priced far above its value, and the “pop” is when prices quickly fall. It’s the fall that hurts; the asset/technology doesn’t lose its underlying value.
- Comment on [deleted] 4 weeks ago:
- Comment on [deleted] 4 weeks ago:
Consider that the Father of All Selection Biases at work here: Of course we’ll hear comments, from all the men who can’t handle the concept of not sharing their opinion, sharing their opinion of not being able to share their opinion.
- Comment on [deleted] 4 weeks ago:
Lemmy is like a house party, where everybody has the freedom to talk to whomever they so choose. Segregated groups, creating segregated groups. If one butts in to a conversation, the participants are free to ask one not to participate, and are free to walk away if one insists. (In this metaphor, the WomensStuff community doesn’t even mind if you listen in.) For a house party, though, the host is well within their rights to not invite anybody, or even ask guests to leave. That’s a very strictly segregated group.
What’s been the ripple of evil from allowing house parties, or companies to pay only a select group of employees, private clubs, family dinners et cetera? Has the existence of the chain of women’s-only gyms destroyed men’s lives?
- Comment on YSK that apart from not having a car, the single greatest thing you can do for the climate is simply eating less red meat 1 month ago:
I feel like this objection makes the most sense in a particular context, like a culture that views beef as some sort of prize, or a marker of being ahead in the competition for social status with one’s neighbors. (U.S. culture very much views it that way.)
If Person A eats only 1 unit of beef per month, what would make dropping to zero “unfair” is if we assume that they are too poor to afford more (“losing”), or engaging in asceticism, but holding on to that one unit as a vital connection to the status game, or a special treat that they covet.
But what if it’s just food? Person A may just not be that into beef, and probably not even miss it, just like Person B probably also wouldn’t notice a difference between 100 units and 99 units. In the sense that neither A or B really would notice a small change all that much, it’s fair
Anyway, random thoughts from somebody who thinks steak is just kind of meh.
- Comment on I'm gonna mute this one 2 months ago:
Personally, I’d go with the idea that the Democrats are the ones who fight for brightly-colored warning signs, guardrails, and PPE for the operators of the orphan crushing machine.
- Submitted 2 months ago to showerthoughts@lemmy.world | 16 comments
- Comment on Has Slavic engineering gone too far? 2 months ago:
Brilliant! Just put your pillow in the wash on spin cycle while cooking your risotto to save a lot of effort.
- Comment on The Los Angeles Police Department shot an Australian reporter with a rubber bullet while she was live on TV. Zero provocation. 2 months ago:
Yes, if Americans rise up, I think it’ll look a lot more like The Troubles than the first American Civil War. For one, because there aren’t clear, geographical divisions this time, and indeed, I would guess that guerilla tactics are going to be more effective than guns against a military with overwhelming conventional warfare capabilities.
- Comment on The Los Angeles Police Department shot an Australian reporter with a rubber bullet while she was live on TV. Zero provocation. 2 months ago:
Is it? That’s exactly the kind of rhetoric used to defend Israel, and bombing schools with kids in them is exactly what they do. American police train with the IDF. That kind of brutality we support abroad comes home eventually.
- Comment on [deleted] 2 months ago:
That’s the leftist ideal. (Which, true, few people fully reach.)
- Comment on Outrage after Israelis fire 'warning shots' as diplomats tour West Bank 3 months ago:
“warning shots” vs. “Please leave the restricted zone.”
Even their lies are totally psychotic.
- Comment on Explains crossfit 3 months ago:
Meanwhile, there’s me wondering why hockey is all of sudden so popular in the middle of the summer.
- Comment on The hills are alive with the sound of music! 🎶🎵 3 months ago:
- Comment on YSK: Regulations don't exist because governments like them... 3 months ago:
I’ll go extra-spicy and point out that there’s no such thing as “ownership” as we know it without government. Legal-wonkishly, ownership is enforceable, transferrable, exclusive title to property. I can “own” land that I’m only physically present on for a few days per year because my name is on a piece of paper in a file cabinet in a government office, and it’s backed up by a court system and police force that’s constituted and willing to enforce my title.
I just mention it because a lot of the deregulation whiners are the same people as the “taxation is theft” whiners.
- Comment on "he" stands for "high efficiency" for detergent and washers, and in the future there could be "she" for "super high efficiency" 4 months ago:
In case anybody was actually wondering, the difference is sudsing agent. The manufacturers originally put a chemical in laundry detergent to make more suds. That doesn’t make them clean clothes any better, it’s just for psychological effect. Customers feel like it’s working better when they can see suds.
But too much sudsing in front-loading machines can cause leaking from around the door seals. (Same as putting dish detergent in the dishwasher.) So the HE detergents are the same thing, but without the sudsing agent. They work just fine in top-loading machines, too.
But does anybody remember those TV ads for Biz detergent which pitted a woman using it against man using “Hiz” detergent? Hooray for casual sexism!
- Comment on Angry, disappointed users react to Bluesky's upcoming blue check mark verification system 4 months ago:
Reminds me of a meeting my co-worker and I had with the IT staff of a company that is a customer using research instruments in our facility. The meeting was to ask us to enable data synchronization through SharePoint. (We’re a Linux shop.) We asked what the issue was with getting their data files with SFTP. They said, “It’s open source.”
Then, a few beats of silence as it sinks in for us that there is no next step in the chain of logic. That is the totality of their objection.
- Comment on What programs do you wish a good FOSS alternative existed, but doesn't or most of the FOSS alternatives simply aren't good? 4 months ago:
That’s amusing to me. Back around 2010, I used a lot of state legal forms that they only released as PDF files, but not fillable. It was annoying to print them and fill them by hand, and terribly fiddly to use the PDF annotation tool on the computer.
So I just used OpenOffice.org to create almost-pixel-perfect versions of the forms, with fillable text boxes, then exported them as PDF. Word couldn’t do it at the time.
Now, at work, I use Microsoft365 because that’s what everyone uses because of the site license. I wish we’d switch to something else, because Outlook fails so hard at basic email stuff.
- Comment on A bit of salt makes it taste more savory 4 months ago:
The first time I had ever heard of the word “tankie” was on Lemmy. It’s just not a thing that about anybody I know offline is, or has heard of. So I don’t understand the obsession with them. Even if they’re doing every evil thing claimed, it’s a) the metaphorical tempest in a teapot, and b) not even working, based on the number of people here who seem to make hating on tankies part of their identity.
- Comment on Are there any Lemmy/Mbin instances by women for women? 4 months ago:
The court thing is not universally true. I worked in a family law firm for several years, and the practice in the courts here is to start from a baseline of equal custody and placement, and I’ve heard the same about other states. The men who lost out were the ones who wouldn’t fight, because they were convinced that the courts were biased. But hell, in one case, we got full custody and placement for a guy whose son wasn’t even biologically his! (His wife cheated, and he didn’t find out until well after they’d emotionally bonded.)
- Comment on Microsoft fires employee protestor who called AI boss a ‘war profiteer’ 4 months ago:
Willfully blind. Eastman Kodak invented the first digital camera in 1975, but decided to focus on their existing, profitable product lines. Clayton Christensen describes the process in The Innovator’s Dilemma.
- Comment on From a purely political perspective, if you oppose the US tariffs as a US resident, should you buy or avoid buying products subject to tariffs? 4 months ago:
You get thrown out of a farmer’s market if you show up naked, though. Probably thrift stores, too.
- Comment on What efforts would it take to strip the name Americans from the folks inhabiting the US? 4 months ago:
Does that make the rest of the world Themians?
- Comment on What efforts would it take to strip the name Americans from the folks inhabiting the US? 4 months ago:
Each of the 50 states has a somewhat unique name, and residents of the state therefore have a unique demonym. Use those instead?
If that’s too many names, Colin Woodward has identified 11 culturally-distinct nations in the US. That would actually promote a lot better understanding of why the country is the way it is. I’d be a Yankee.
Changing the collective name demonym Americans would be confusing during the transition, and for what benefit? Is this really a concern for residents of other countries in the Americas? Are Colombianos really scrambling to be called Americans?
Instead, I suggest taking Pres. Sheinbaum’s suggestion, if you want to do something: Call the continent Mexican America. Everybody would know what you mean from context right away. No confusion, no need to get anybody else to play along.
- Comment on The best thing *you* can do for the fediverse is *just be kind* 4 months ago:
I have a couple of suggestions to add:
I was considering leaving the other site before the API fiasco because it felt like so many users approach engagement as rhetorical combat, that is, one commenter will win and one will lose. Instead, think one of Covey’s habits of highly-effective people: “Win-win, or no deal.” Approach discussion on the Fediverse as a collaborative act, in which you’re exchanging ideas with another person. Even if you disagree, you can both win by respectfully hearing it out the other person. And if the other person won’t collaborate? No deal! Just disengage.
Just like in intimate relationship, use “I” statements instead of “you” statements. Telling people who they are and what they believe is not only disrespectful, but probably wrong, often exaggerated or distorted for rhetorical combat purposes. People get angry when their identity gets poked at. One exception, of course, is when giving advice, like, stick to what you know, and share your thoughts and your reactions to a topic.
- Comment on FCC chair says we’re too dependent on GPS and wants to explore ‘alternatives’. 5 months ago:
It’s a joke, since GLONASS is the Russian system. E-LORAN would be ironic, considering that the U.S. demolished its LORAN infrastructure around 2009. What are the odds that the best backup just happens to be Starlink?
- Comment on FCC chair says we’re too dependent on GPS and wants to explore ‘alternatives’. 5 months ago:
GLONASS?
- Comment on Facebook Cybertruck Owners Group Copes With Relentless Mockery 5 months ago:
There’s a joke/urban myth that it’s the law in Wisconsin that restaurants have to serve a slice of cheese with apple pie.
We did used to have a law that oleo (margarine) had to be sold undyed, which made it a sickly-looking blue-ish white. This was to protect the state’s dairy industry. Only butter could be yellow. People near the borders used to bootleg yellow margarine back across the border from other states. The law was dealt a mortal blow when one of our state representatives publicly took a blind taste test in order to prove that butter was better…
…and failed. His family had been worried about his health, and was surreptitiously substituting yellow margarine for butter in their meals. (In an amusing historical twist, now that we know about the danger of transfats, we know that butter is indeed better.)
- Comment on That would be cool if movie theatres had VR headsets that I could wear and it would provide closed caption subtitles. 5 months ago:
My boss has AR glasses that transcribe conversations in real-time (more or less).